1. So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
2. Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
3. And for the peace of you I hold such strife
4. As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
5. Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
6. Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
7. Now counting best to be with you alone,
8. Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure:
9. Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
10. And by and by clean starved for a look;
11. Possessing or pursuing no delight
12. Save what is had, or must from you be took.
13. Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
14. Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

The poet returns to praise of his beloved, a
praise more than slightly
tinged by the overarching metaphor, which likens his behaviour to the
paranoic
and extreme behaviour of a miser. Either he sees his beloved all the
time,
and dotes on his company, or else he is all too aware of his absence.
Nothing
seems to satisfy him, and between the two extremes of satiety and
starvation
he finds no middle way. Thus the joyousness of the opening of the
sonnet,
in which the beloved is as the gentle rain which falleth, is changed
into
the crooked freneticism of passion and unquenchable desire, from which,
even if he should wish it, there seems to be no immediate escape.

THE
1609 QUARTO VERSION

75

S

O are you to my
thoughts as
food to life,
Or as ſweet ſeaſon'd ſhewers are to the ground;

And
for the peace of you I hold
ſuch ſtrife,
As twixt a miſer and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an inioyer,and anon
Doubting the filching age will ſteale his treaſure,
Now counting beſt to be with you alone,
Then betterd that the world may ſee my pleaſure,
Some-time all ful with feaſting on your ſight,
And by and by clean ſtarued for a looke,
Poſſeſſing or purſuing no delight
Saue what is had,or muſt from you be tooke.
Thus do I pine and ſurfet day by day,
Or gluttoning on all,or all away,

1.
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,

1. As food is necessary to life,
so are you
necessary to my thoughts.

2. Or as sweet-season'd
showers are to the ground;

2.
sweet-season'd = sweet smelling; of
the sweet season of the year i.e. spring or summer. 'You are as
beneficial
to my thoughts as spring showers are to the ground'.

3. And for the peace of you I hold such strife

3. And
for the peace of you = In order
that you might live an undisturbed life; in order that I might enjoy
the
peace of being with you. Probably there is a pun intended on piece.
Compare Hamlet:
BARNARDO. .........Say --
What, is Horatio there?
HORATIO A piece of him. Ham.I.1.18-19.

I hold such strife = I strive to be vigilant. strife
implies
contention, disputation, fighting, but one must bear in mind that it is
partly the exigencies of rhyme which have forced the use of the word. A
miser strives to guard his treasure from all comers, and the contrast
is
also drawn between the peace of the beloved and the strife which his
worshippers
endure.

4. As 'twixt a miser and
his wealth is found.

4.
'twixt = betwixt, between. We still
occasionally hear the phrase 'betwixt and between'. The relationship
between
the miser and his wealth is equivalent to that between the poet and his
friend, as explained in the following lines.

5. Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon

5. The next
eight lines describe the miser's
sensations, using him as a simile for the lover's joy's and anxieties.
as an enjoyer = as the miser enjoy's his wealth; as I enjoy
being with
you. Words such as proud,enjoyer,
treasure, counting, pursuing,
possessing, had, and all have secondary
sexual meanings and play
the base fiddle to the main part of the sonnet. They provide a
light-hearted
counterpoint to the serious questions that the lover asks himself.

7.
counting best = considering it to
be best. Also with a suggestion of the miser counting his treasure.

8. Then better'd that the world may see my
pleasure:

8.
better'd that = made better because;
feeling better in that. Notice that there is a change from the indirect
third person of histreasure (referring
to the miser) to the
direct my pleasure. All the references from now on
are to the writer,
the miser being relegated to the background and only present by virtue
of
the experiences described, which are such as the miser might experience
with regard to his locked up treasures.

9. Sometime all full with
feasting on your sight,

9.
Sometime = at times.

10. And by and by clean
starved for a look;

10.
And by and by = very shortly afterwards.
See note to line 7 Sonnet 73.
clean starved = utterly, totally starved. starved
has the final
ed pronounced.

11. Possessing or pursuing no delight

11.
no delight = no other delight, no
other pleasure.This is governed by possessing or pursuing. 'I
neither
pursue nor seek to possess any delight except that which I might have
and
enjoy with you'. Some editors put a comma after delight,
which implies
'There is no delight in possessing or pursuing any thing at all. Only
what
is had from you is enjoyable'. This line and the next are a
foreshadowing
of the description of lust in Sonn.129 Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

12. Save what is had, or
must from you be took.

12.
See note above.
took = taken. The past participle in this form is common in
Renaissance
English. 'Except what is had from you, or must be taken from you'.